"Maybe history is repeating itself with bracket racers abandoning the local events to run for the big dollars where the competition is getting tougher with each passing race."

https://dragracingedge.com/the...k-and-some-thoughts/

Good reading & great article. One thing to keep in mind, our current President has the economy on a POSITIVE climb that it hasn’t seen in recent years. That being said the BIG $$$ high entry fee races are feeling the rewards of a booming economy. The U.S. economy always goes thru cycles and thank goodness we are on an EXTREME UP cycle right now and that helps promoters/racers both. You are always going to have a segment of bracket racers who ONLY DO THE BIG $$$$ EVENTS. When the economy is good it affords the every Sat nite bracket racer an opportunity to “get their feet wet” in some BIG $$$$ events and thats a GOOD THING!!!! What may get lost in the shuffle right now is the local Sat nite track owner/operator??? How does he compete with somebody somewhere having a BIG $$$$ event almost every weekend??? Bracket racing will ALWAYS be dependent on PARTICIPANTS so as long as NEW BLOOD stays in the “pipeline” BIG $$$ promoters & Weekly promoters should be able to find their “niche” racers to survive. The problem will come when not enough “new blood” jumps in the game to replace the “old guys” getting out of the sport or cutting way back on their participation level.

This article nearly sounds like something I could have written. Except that I would still be quite happy running solely for those plastic trophies. Bracket racing is most certainly not dying. However, it is evolving. It is evolving away from being the local track's bread and butter. Local tracks aren't dying either. They have just moved on from using bracket racing to keep the gates open. This is what the market has shown it wants.

What I do find irritating are those bracket racers who believe local track operators should now subsidize their loss of profit margin on bracket racing purses with the profits they DO make on those other nights. That makes zero sense to me and sounds a bit like some bracket racers feeling "entitled". Take care. Tom Worthington

I've been reading about the doom and gloom, our sport is dying, there's no new blood in our sport, etc. since I was a kid -- which unfortunately was a long, long time ago now.

Yes, some local programs are down. Others are up. You can't throw a blanket over all of them. Norwalk sustained rainouts week after week after week at the beginning of the year, but racers PACKED the pits for $1,500 to win with 80%-90% chance of rain every week. We had a good crowd at Dragway 42 this weekend. People just want a good time and a good value for their dollar.

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Nowadays, if 100 show up, at least 99 of them are competitive enough to win. Blame it on whatever you want, but that’s the truth.

"The truth" based on what? I don't find that to be true in the slightest. There's definitely a wide swath of talent these days, but 99% is wildly off-base. Equipment is better, drivers are better, but the cream rises to the top. While it may be a game of chance to single out one driver to win on a particular day, way more often than not, people are not surprised by the ones who do win.

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That said though, it’s getting pretty hard to put up a run package in the single digits.

That's not correct. It happens *more* frequently now. At our first event, we had two perfect runs in the Box class. At our second event, we had two perfect runs in the Footbrake class. At our third event, we had six .001 packages... two of them side-by-side.

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The only concern is the money gets easily spent, so what do you have left?

I think the real concern is for the folks who can't cover the tab. When people spend more in a weekend than we used to spend in an entire season, some folks are going to be out for awhile to recoup. This sport MUST be sustainable. We need to not forget that while buying stacks of lottery tickets.

Where is the "LIKE' button … Michael as really put it down on paper....

Michael has been and will continue to be RIGHT!

Brenda

The question of where you want to race is:

Do you want to race with the best of the best at your highest level, or do you want to race at home where it is nice and safe, and you can be home before the streetlights come on?

I think he meant it's getting harder for himself to put up the single digit packages

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Originally posted by Hotrod Corvette:
The question of where you want to race is:

Do you want to race with the best of the best at your highest level, or do you want to race at home where it is nice and safe, and you can be home before the streetlights come on?

Sure sounds condescending. Frankly, the big money races I just don't consider fun. With the number of cars required for the purse, you are in for a very long day IF there aren't problems during the day. The pits are sometimes overflowing. You sit for hours waiting between rounds. I am not and have not been the caliber of driver with the quality of equipment to get the job done over a day that long with the caliber of driver you meet later in the rounds at those races. So if I'm not late in the rounds, it was an expensive weekend full of waiting around mostly. I very much enjoy the plethora of $1-5,000 races locally. Mix in some super comp club races in the region, and I'm not sure it is about "safe". It's about fun.
Yes, it is nice to be able to get home the night of a race and be able to take care of other things at home on Sunday. Absolutely it is important to me to race at races where my son can also race his jr. And it's also nice after the finals at a reasonable hour to stand around and have a soda with friends before hitting the road, or a beer if it is a two day race. Or a cookout or whatever.
So look down your nose at local racing and racers if you like. Many of us discovered that the local racing can be exactly what we are looking for......fun.

Look at it this way, do what’s fun for you, if you ain’t having any fun you probably ain’t winning many rounds for one thing. It’s not that I have to win to have fun but going a few round means something to me or atleast knowing I had a chance. Racing locally allows me to have some fun with other racers I know even if I am out of the race but I don’t even points race locally, I drive further than three other tracks to points race.

Local tracks were focused on a points series and then fielding a team for the bracket finals. Now it seems there's less people interested in their local tracks, running points and less interest in the bracket finals.
I like to go to different tracks and there's good racers at every one of them. For the money spent I'd rather go to 2 day events at a smaller track with an entry fee that fits my budget. My racing fits my budget or I wouldn't go racing and the high entry fees aren't worth it to me.

TWO perfect runs on Thursday at the World Footbrake Challenge.

Everything changes. Drag racing is changing as well. The bad thing is that some tracks still try to do the same thing as they used to and are not seeing the same results. Everything changes, the tracks need to evolve a little as well.
I still go to lots of events that are packed with race cars and racers.

I look at it like television. Today, people can choose from hundreds of channels and find just what they want. Same for bracket racing today. So tracks have to be nimble, and willing to do a lot of everything. Count on a no prep series. Appearances by the Outlaws. Fast small tire deals. Some money races, and of course a points program. Never a dull moment. Add some jr, high school and tcr racing, and some club racing, and call it a season. That's just the way it is today.

hard to say bracket events are up or down locally. It rains every sunday. The one or two times it didn't rain, there was rain in the forecast and they cancelled Sunday's events the day before, and Sunday turned out beautiful. Similar to farming in a way. Weather dependent. Local events haven't been filling the pits much lately either and it's depressing for a lot of us who don't have the funds or time off availability to travel to the big money events, so that sorta stuff leaves us poor working people hung out to dry sometimes.